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Inspiration: Kitty’s butterfly party

If you follow me on Instagram you’ll have seen pics from Kitty’s naming day and know it was a butterfly themed bash. It was a bit of a last-minute decision to have a theme, to be honest, and fuelled entirely by my discovery of the edible butterflies for the cake, but I found plenty of goodies to share with you. So, the cake was a two-tier affair (made by my mum, as always) with a gluten-free top tier (basically for me) and was covered with these amazing rainbow rice paper butterflies I found at SugarRobot on Etsy. I can’t tell you how fabulous they are, the photos barely do them justice and they arrived from the US speedily and intact. You bend them into shape and secure with icing.

That got me thinking about decorations. I visited my old faithful, Tiger Stores, and, rather fortuitously, found rainbow tissue butterfly banners. I’d already made loads of bright tissue paper pom poms (using this tutorial – good old Martha!) and made a ‘Kitty Seren is 2’ banner using my A Little Lovely Company letters and these more than covered the gazebo we had on the lawn of The Garden Cafe. I filled Bonne Maman jam jars with Sweet Williams and feather butterflies to go on the tables. It’s not a party without balloons, so I bought transparent ones from Little Lulubel and stuffed them with butterfly confetti we punched out of tissue paper using this.

I had twenty children attending of different ages, so I tailored party bags accordingly. I used Floral Fiesta treat bags, sealed with kraft butterfly stickers with their names on, both from Pipii. The littlest ones got a Little Fingy butterfly finger puppet, then boys and girls Alfie’s age got badges made from recycled stamps featuring butterflies from TangleCrafts, and the older girls got hairclips from ASOS. Every bag had a tattoo and a plantable butterfly (from Wildflower Favours) which I popped in a tiny glassine bag with printed instructions and sealed with a punched-out sticker. I also had a big box of butterfly gliders which kept them entertained while we were saying a few words. Plus, I booked The World’s Most Amazing Face Painter (TM) Nam Nams (check out her facepainting tent at Camp Bestival), which was a big hit – she even did me an arm paint in colours to match my dress.

Although we were hoping for the beautiful weather we actually had, as there were twenty children coming I thought I’d better have some activities ready in case of rain, so I stocked up on these caterpillars from Little Crafty Bugs and a load of self-adhesive googly eyes and jewels. Towards the end of the party, there was a group of children sitting on the grass crafting away, so they weren’t wasted after all. It was a fantastic day and Kitty had a blast – she especially loved wearing her Tutu du Monde dress (an unbelieveable bargain in a past Igloo Kids sale) and favourite SunSan Sweethearts.